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FAYETTEVILLE HIGH SCHOOL (Fayetteville, Arkansas) Purple Bulldog's 1963 FOOTBALL PLAYBOOK AND SCOUTING REPORTS Playbook and scouting reports by Coach Jay Donathan and his assistants From the Files of Dan Durning

Football Playbook and Scouting Reports for the 1963 Fayetteville (Ark.) Bulldogs

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This document has the handwritten playbook for the 1963 Fayetteville High School football teams, plus scouting reports for the teams FHS would be playing. All were written by Coach Jay Donathan and his staff.

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Page 1: Football Playbook and Scouting Reports for the 1963 Fayetteville (Ark.) Bulldogs

FAYETTEVILLE HIGH SCHOOL

(Fayetteville, Arkansas)

Purple Bulldog's

1963 FOOTBALL PLAYBOOK

AND

SCOUTING REPORTS

Playbook and scouting reports by

Coach Jay Donathan and

his assistants

From the Files of Dan Durning

Page 2: Football Playbook and Scouting Reports for the 1963 Fayetteville (Ark.) Bulldogs

In middle August, 1963, a group of high school boys in Fayetteville, Arkansas joined

similar groups of kids throughout the United States in a grueling ritual: two-a-day

football practices. It was not easy to go out in the hot summer heat wearing football

pads, but we gamely suited up and sweated ourselves into shape.

The coach of the team, the Fayetteville Bulldogs, was Jay Donathan, a lean man with

closely cropped hair. He had played football for the Arkansas Razorbacks and landed a

job coaching the high school team in the city in which the University of Arkansas is

located. I don't know if he intended to make coaching a career, but 1963 would be his

last year coaching the Fayetteville team. At the end of the season, he announced that he

was leaving coaching to study to be a dentist.

As a first-year player, a sophomore, I was more scared of Coach Donathan, who had a

reputation as a task master, than the twice-a-day practices. Both were pretty harsh.

Through those summer practices, I learned of the joys of downing tall, cool glasses of

A&W root beer after the morning practice, and I also learned to fear the ferocious pain

of leg cramps in the evening following the afternoon practice.

When we assembled for our first team meeting, we were given a playbook with the main

plays that we would be running. Our first job was to learn the system and terminology of

the playbook so that when a play was called, we would know who to block and where to

run.

Looking at the playbook we were given, it is easy to recall the numbering system. Each

play was three digits. The first digit was the formation. The second digit was the back

who would be carrying the ball: 2= left halfback, 3= full back, 4= right halfback. The

third number was the slot to which to runner was supposed to go, ranging from 1

(outside the right end) to 9 (outside the left end). If I were the right tackle, I knew that

the runner would be going through any hole that I could create with my blocking if the

third number of the play was a 3 or 4.

We spent lots of time in our practices running the plays repeatedly. We quickly mastered

the playbook and could focus on carrying out our assignments instead of trying to figure

out what they were.

After the season started, we were given scouting reports on the offensive plays and

defensive configurations of the team we were scheduled to play the coming Friday. The

playbook came with a clasp that we could use to add sheets each week. The following

pages consist of the playbook and the scouting reports that I was given during the

season.

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